NASA spacecraft reaches the Ceres

A NASA spaceprobe slipped into orbit around Ceres, a dwarf planet across Mars is believed to be the rest of the formation of the solar system. And Dawn is a spaceprobe of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and became the first spacecraft to reach orbit around the dwarf planet.

Currently Dawn is approximately 61,000 kilometers of Ceres when capturing the gravity of the largest object in the asteroid belt of Mars and Jupiter on Friday, March 6, 2015.

Dawn, a NASA's spaceprobe in an artist illustration. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1AcjFfG)

Mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA in Pasadena, California, receives a signal from the Dawn spacecraft that was in good health and got a boost from its ion engine, as well as the indicators mentioned that Dawn entered orbit as planned.

"Since the discovery in 1801, Ceres is known as planets, and asteroids, and then the dwarf planet," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineering and director of the mission at JPL.

Ceres looks from the Dawn spaceprobe on March 1, 2015, a few days before the mission reaches orbit around the dwarf planet that unexplored before. The image was taken from a distance of about 48,000 kilometers. (Picture from:http://bit.ly/1C0DIlY)

"Now, after traveling 3.1 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) and 7.5 years, Dawn calls Ceres as home," he said as quoted by NASA's official website. In addition to becoming the first spacecraft to visit Ceres, Dawn is also the first mission goes into the orbits of two extraterrestrial targets.

During 2011 to 2012, the spacecraft was to explore the giant asteroid Vesta, transmit new knowledge and thousands of images of distant worlds. Ceres and Vesta are the two of the largest occupants in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in our solar system.

Latest pictures received from the spacecraft's, which was taken on March 1, 2015, shows Ceres as crescent, mostly in shadow. When Dawn emerged from the dark side of Ceres, the plane will send sharper pictures. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SPACEDAILY]

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